Meet Your Fisherman - Chelsea and Pete Keutmann

Chelsea of Sea to Shore Seafood Co. is a third generation fisherman from Petersburg, Alaska. She was on a boat at three days old and grew up fishing on a 32’ southeast Alaska gillnet boat. Chelsea worked hard alongside her family learning how to clean and sell fish. After trying multiple fisheries, at 18, Chelsea decided to start running her own commercial fishing operation. “I took the knowledge I learned, I leased a boat, took out a loan, bought a southeast drift gillnet permit and started direct marketing a portion of my catch to a distributor in Seattle.”

Flash forward 5 years, Pete (then a diesel mechanic in the coast guard) came into the picture. He had an outside view and could see what needed to change to make a direct marketing business profitable. They piled all their savings (and then some) to buy the boat they could afford which was built in 1964 and needed a complete gut and rebuild. Luckily, Pete had the knowledge and drive to design, fabricate, and construct the boat redo.

“We have started, failed, and had to reinvent our business more times than not, but quitting was never an option. We have been working on growing our business which has led us to expand into neighboring farmers markets, home deliveries and wholesale accounts. It is also very important (and personal) to help small scale fishermen have a chance at making a living in this career. For the new generations of fisherman starting from the bottom with the hopes of running their own operation, we have a steep hill to climb.”